Behaviour of Humans and Behaviour of Models in Dynamic Space

This paper addresses new trends in quantitative geography research. Modern social science research – including economic and social geography – has in the past decades shown an increasing interest in micro-oriented behaviour of actors. This is inter alia clearly reflected in spatial interaction models (SIMs), where discrete choice approaches have assumed a powerful position. This paper aims to provide in particular a concise review of micro-based research, with the aim to review the potential – but also the caveats – of micro-models to map out human behaviour. In particular, attention will be devoted to interactive learning principles that shape individual decisions. Lessons from cognitive sciences will be put forward and illustrated, amongst others on the basis of computational neural networks or spatial econometric approaches. The methodology of deductive reasoning under conditions of large data bases in studying human mobility will be questioned as well. In this context more extensive attention is given to ceteris paribus conditions and evolutionary thinkin

Plan-based proactive computing

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-88).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.As the field of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) has matured, the issue of how ubicomp applications should make use of all the devices available to them has not received much attention. We address this issue by presenting a plan-based execution model for creating proactive ubiquitous computing applications. Three applications, each from different domains, were built using this paradigm. These applications demonstrate how knowledge of a person's plan can be used to proactively assist that person. This thesis also discusses the benefits this paradigm provides application developers.by Gary Wail Keung Look.S.M

Efficient utility functions for ceteris paribus preferences

Although ceteris paribus preference statements concisely represent one natural class of preferences over outcomes or goals, many applications of such preferences require numeric utility function representations to achieve computational efficiency. We provide algorithms, complete for finite universes of binary features, for converting a set of qualitative ceteris paribus preferences into quantitative utility functions

Infrastructure for human-centered computing in distributed, pervasive, intelligent environments

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-165).As intelligent environments (IEs) move from simple kiosks and meeting rooms into the everyday offices, kitchens, and living spaces we use, the need for these spaces to communicate not only with users, but also with each other, will become increasingly important. Users will want to be able to shift their work environment between localities easily, and will also need to communicate with others as they move about. These IEs will thus require two pieces of infrastructure: a knowledge representation (KR) which can keep track of people and their relationships to the world; and a communication mechanism so that the IE can mediate interactions. This thesis seeks to define, explore and evaluate one way of creating this infrastructure, by creating societies of agents that can act on behalf of real-world entities such as users, physical spaces, or informal groups of people. Just as users interact with each other and with objects in their physical location, the agent societies interact with each other along communication channels organized along these same relationships. By organizing the infrastructure through analogies to the real world, we hope to achieve a simpler conceptual model for the users, as well as a communication hierarchy which can be realized efficiently.by Stephen L. Peters.Ph.D

Argumentation as a practical foundation for decision theory

Imperial Users onl